SAW
by NixRMax
Summary: A deranged killer going by the name of 'The Bijuu' is putting villagers through sick and twisted 'games'. But when two Jounins are killed in Bijuu's sick games, they are forced to face a very real truth...that one of their own ninja is doing it.
1. Bijuu

**I DO NOT OWN NARUTO OR SAW. This is the first fanfiction I have gotten the nerve to post on here. This idea hit me when I was watching SAW. I thought to myself, I wonder why no one has done a SAW and Naruto fic before. So here we are. Now, there will be NO characters from SAW in this. The main killer will be named Bijuu, or The Bijuu. Bijuu means Tailed-Beast. The rookie nine are all 19 and Jounins. **** The rest of the ages you can figure out for yourself. ****Sasuke is back in Konoha, and is dating Sakura. That will be the only obvious pairing right now. My grammar is not the best, but the story is readable which is all that matters. If you have a problem with it, then please tell me nicely. Any similarities with other fics is purely unintentional unless otherwise stated. Now, enjoy, because this was a real pain in the ass to write.**

_**SAW**_

_'Bijuu'_

* * *

Tsunade rubbed her temples to try and get rid of her stress. _'Dammit, first this deranged killer targets the villagers, and now he targets two of our Jounin.'_ She sighed, and called in Shizune. "Yes Tsunade-sama?" Tsunade stood up and went over to her 'sake cupboard', "I want you to bring in all available Jounins here for a meeting." Shizune nodded, and went to work gathering the Jounins, while Tsunade poured herself a cup of sake and waited.

* * *

All available Jounins, including Kakashi, Kurenai, Asuma, Gai and his former team, Anko, Ibiki, and most of 'The Rookie Nine' sat on mats in front of the Hokage's desk. "Ok, now that you all are here. I have an announcement. Two of our Jounins have been killed by 'The Bijuu'." A collective gasp came from a good portion of the Jounin. "This is now getting very serious. So far we have lost twenty-five villagers and now two Jounin to this deranged lunatic and his sick games.", Tsunade said, her voice filled with seriousness. Tsunade motioned for Ibiki to come up to front, which he did. "Ibiki, I would like your take on these killings please." 

Ibiki nodded, and started pacing in front of her desk. "While 'The Bijuu's acts may be deranged and sick, 'I' as a Torture and Interrogation ninja, can't help but see the genius in this persons 'games'."

Tsunade raised an eyebrow at this. "You almost sound like you admire him."

Ibiki sighed. "In a strange way I do. The traps are ingenious. These obviously aren't random attacks, because the way the 'games' are set up suggests that 'The Bijuu' has done his research on his victims." He faced Tsunade. "If this guy wasn't such a deranged lunatic he might have been a good addition to the Torture and Interrogation team." Tsunade rolled her eyes at this, while everyone else sighed.

Ibiki bowed, and went back to his mat. Naruto raised his hand. "What do we know about him thus far?"

Tsunade sighed and pulled out a file. "Nothing really. His attacks seemed to be random, but as Ibiki just pointed out, this doesn't seem the case, since the traps are far to...personal. We know that he likes to wear a black ANBU style robe, and a fox mask. However, according to the only survivor it isn't just a fox mask. It is a Kyuubi mask." The Jounin that disliked Naruto shift their gaze to him. Tsunade scowled and stood up quickly, causing almost all of them to jump. "Now listen here. Just because 'The Bijuu' wears a Kyuubi mask does not mean it is Naruto. Granted, we can't rule him or ANY of you out but..." She sighed, and sat back down.

Anko raised her hand. "Are you suggesting what I think you are suggesting Hokage-sama?"

Tsunade nodded. "Yes, I believe that 'The Bijuu' is a shinobi of Konoha." Several of the Jounin's in the room stood up in shock and started yelling at Tsunade. "You can't seriously think that Hokage-sama!"

Tsunade stood up again and slammed her hands on the desk, nearly breaking it, and silencing the Jounin. "Yes I do think so. No simple villager could do this, that was proven by the last 'game'. 'Bijuu' made special shackles that go around your wrists and ankles that suck up Chakra. Making any jutsu useless." She sat back down, and took a few deep breathes. "Besides...there are a few 'mistakes' he failed to cover up that point to this, like subtle ways of crafting things in a way signature of Konoha shinobi. Not also mention the only way to gather that much information is to be a shinobi of Konoha." She stood up and looked at the Hokage Monument. "Not only that, we may have many enemies, but no one as sick as this. Since Orochimaru and all of his followers are dead we can rule them out. And even if there was a stray follower still alive, I doubt they would have the skills to do something like this. The Akatsuki we can't rule out, but they have been almost completely destroyed. Now...it may be a trap to get us to start pointing fingers, but we don't have much else to go on right now...

"However, this means that 'The Bijuu' could be in this room right now."

Time seemed to stand still after this comment. Most of the Jounins looked around at their fellow Jounins in suspicion.

Neji Hyuuga sighed. "Did you really have to say that Hokage-sama? It is just going to create panic." Tsunade turned and looked at him, and then around the room. "Eh, ok you might be right. But I can't take it back now." She sat back down and leaned her head on her right hand. "We must catch this sick monster before he takes any more lives. His games have gone on long enough. I am tired of waiting for the public investigations team, so we will be putting our best ninja to this case."

Tsunade looked over at Shikamaru Nara. "Shikamaru, I hate to do this, especially since you just got back from an six month long mission, but your smarts could be a great use to us. You can refuse if you wish, but it would really help." Shikamaru sighed. "Jeez, I leave for five months and this happens. Ok, I'll help, even though it's...troublesome." Tsunade smiled and turned to face the others. "Ok, some of you will take shifts to help. You can also refuse if you want, but I'll give you C-Rank missions for a month if you do." The Jounins gulped at this prospect.

Tsunade smirked. "Now, Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, and Shizune. You'll be on shift helping me and Ibiki's team tonight. The rest of you will get your orders tomorrow. Ok, Dismissed!" The Jounins nodded, and most of them poofed out of the room. Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura bowed politely to the Hokage, and walked out of the Hokage tower.

When they got outside Sakura whispered something to Sasuke. He nodded and faced Naruto. "Hey Naruto, why don't you come over for while, it's been awhile since we were all together." Naruto looked back at them, and Sasuke took note of the signs of sleep depravation in his eyes. "I'd really love to, but I've been really tired lately. I'm gonna go home and try to get some sleep."

He gave them a weak and forced smile, which both Sakura and Sasuke picked up on. Sakura looked crestfallen, but giave a smile of her own. "It's ok Naruto, you look like you need sleep anyway, we can catch up anytime." Naruto nodded and went off to his apartment, waving his right hand behind him. Sasuke sighed, and put his arm around Sakura, leading her back to his house.

* * *

A woman, no older then 30, wearing a simple light red kimono, and with shoulder length brown hair, opened her eyes slowly, taking in the unfamiliar surroundings. She was laying on the floor at the end of a semi-dark and somewhat wet room. At the end of this room was a double door with a television screen above it. She sat up and rubbed her head. "Oh man, what happened. Where am I?", she asked, not asking anyone in particular. She jumped when the television turned on, she looked at the blackness of the screen. She got up and walked over to the door to try and open it, but found it locked. She jumped and fell backwards when a rough and scratchy male voice broke the silence. "I'm afraid that wont work. The door has a special lock, so you wont be able to open it." 

She looked up at the TV, and still saw nothing but black. Until a figure turned around to reveal a red and orange face mask that resembles the Kyuubi. "Who...who are you? AND WHERE AM I?!", she screamed out, tears threatening to spill from her eyes. "I am called...The Bijuu. And you are at the area of your judgment."

Her eyes widened. "The...the Bijuu? You...your that psycho that has been killing people!", tears were now streaming down her face. 'The Bijuu' laughed. "If you look at it from my point of view, I've never killed anyone. Well...anyone loyal to Konoha." She collapsed to the ground in tears.

The Bijuu's tone turned serious, darkness laced his rough voice. "Now Sunaki Hotoro, I want to play a game. Do you remember what you did to a little boy years ago? If you don't I'll refresh your memory. You stoned the little boy, punished him for false crimes and your own selfish reasons. You almost killed that little boy, and got away clean. Well now you will _feel_ his pain. The ceiling above you is split into six sections, but it is also highly 'unstable', and is made of pure stone that is exactly eight feet tall. Every three minutes a section will fall, and the only way out is the door. But where is the key? The scroll tied around your wrist will help you with that." Sunaki looked down and finally noticed the scroll.

She looked back up when he spoke again. "It is time to see if you truly deserved to live." She heard a faint snicker from The Bijuu. "Let the game...BEGIN!" The television turned off, and a faint creaking noise is heard above her. She quickly took the scroll off her wrist, opened it, and began to read it.

_"The fourth is a savior, but the third is misleading._

_The walls are strong, but they also hide secrets."_

_You have twelve minutes to figure out the meaning to this._

_Work quickly, or else it will all be over. -The Bijuu._

She started thinking about it in her head. _'The fourth is a savior, but the third is misleading. Huh, is he talking about the Hokages? Hmm... Damn, I used to be so good at riddles.'_ She looked around for a few seconds, and then looked up. _'Wait..."You have twelve minutes". Three times four is twelve. A section falls every three minutes...'_ She saw the notches in the ceiling and counted them. A light bulb went off in her head. _'That's it!'_

She went to the walls on the right side of the room from the door and started hitting them. When she got under the piece of ceiling that is the 'fourth' section her hand stuck to a part of the wall. She smiled and went to drive her hand through it, but a loud crash stoped her, and nearly gave her a heart attack. She looked over to see that the first section of ceiling had fallen. _'Damn, I need to hurry up. I am going to run out of time.'_

She screamed and slammed her hand into the wet cement, grabbed some of it, pulled it out in big globs. When there was a big enough hole she scraped her hand on the wall to clean off some of the wet cement, and reached in. Disappointment covering her face when there was nothing there. She pulled her hand out and screamed again, then slammed her hand into the wall again, finding another patch of wet cement a foot above the first one. She smirked and dug through that one, though she is disappointed when it is also empty. She kicked the wall and found another patch three feet below the first. She dug through it like a wild animal, and screamed to let out her frustration when it is empty as well.

She looked over at the wall across from her, and took a deep breath, before running over to it. Getting scared shitless when the next section fell...right next to her. She shook her head and crawled over to the wall. Instantly finding another patch of wet cement. She ripped through it, and growled when it was empty. She stood up and patted the wall, finding another patch near the top. Once again it was empty, she screamed again and drove her fist into the middle section of the wall. She became surprised when her fist went through it, but is more surprised when she felt something inside of it. She smiled and grabbed it, cheering when she discovered it was a key. She ran over to the door, and wiped the cement off the key onto her kimono.

She slipped the key into the keyhole and turned it. Nearly breaking down into tears when nothing happened. She tried it again and again, tears of frustration appearing in her eyes. Only when the next section fell was she broken out of her frustration. She looked back and fell back onto the door in tears.

"No...no...NO! Let me go...PLEASE!" No one answered her of course. She started to do the only thing she could to calm herself down...think. _'Stop crying...stop crying and think. Ok...maybe I got it wrong. Lets see...'_ Her face scrunched up in concentration. _'The fourth is a savior, but the third is misleading. I went to the fourth section but the key didn't work...oh...oh god.' _

She got up and counts the sections again. _'That wasn't the fourth section from the door, that was the third section from the starting point. OF COURSE. I went the wrong way.'_

With a smile on her face she rushed over to the wall under the real fourth section and started to smack it. She found a patch of wet cement and started digging. Cheering once more when she found a key. She grabbed it, but as she does her celebration is cut short...by the next section of wall falling down on her. She managed to fall out of the way of the section, but lost her grip on the key. As she lay on the ground she watched in horror as the section of stone fell right on the key.

"No, no, no, no, no, no...NOOOOOOO!", she cried out. Rushing to the door she started beating on it. "Please...please let me OUT!", she pleaded, collapsing into tears against the door. "Please...please...please...PLEASE!" She fell backwards when the next section fell right behind her. She cried her heart out, pleading to be let go. The Bijuu's voice broke her from her pleas.

"Sunaki. You have failed your test. You have proven that you do not deserve to live." She looked up at the television with tear filled eyes. "N-no. Please...I don't want to die. PLEASE!"

"GAME OVER!"

The last section shook and fell down onto her body. The last thing heard of her, was her screams of terror...

* * *

**Ok, that is the end of the first chapter. The next chapter will come whenever I feel like it. This is a real pain in the ass to write, mostly because of all the thought that goes into it. I would also like to thank a user of the GameFAQs message boards named 'Protoman Rulz All' for helping me with some of the things in the fic. Later...**

**_Made a minor age and word edit on 01/28/07.  
Rewritten into past-tense and fixed to my standards on 07/06/07. _**


	2. Investigations Part I

**I DO _NOT_ OWN NARUTO OR SAW. My grammar is not the best, but the story is readable which is all that matters. If you have a problem with it, then please tell me nicely. Any similarities with other fics is purely unintentional unless otherwise stated. This is an investigation chapter, part of the Investigation series of chapters, where you will find out about the other victims of the previous games. This is a slow chapter, with not much happening, so bare with me. Now, enjoy, because this was a _real_ pain in the ass to write.**

_**SAW**_

_'Investigations Part I'_

* * *

Sasuke, Shizune, Sakura, Tsunade, and Ibiki, who's team had been dismissed for the night, were scanning through the case files of The Bijuu's 'games'. They all silently wondered where Naruto was, since they had made him go and get something to eat, which was over an hour ago. They all breathed a sigh of relief when he walked into the 'Investigations' room with a plastic bug full of food in his left hand, and a scroll in the other. He walked over to them and placed the food on his desk. "Here, sorry it took so long. But you might not want to eat anything." 

Sasuke looked from the food to Naruto with his eyebrow raised. "Why? Did they spit in it or something?" Naruto shook his head and handed him the scroll. "No, The Bijuu has struck just again, and I don't want the food ending up on the floor of the crime scene." Tsunade snapped her head up in shock at this, while the rest of them stared at Naruto.

"Who is his latest victim?", Ibiki asked. Naruto popped his neck, and let out a yawn. "A village woman. Thirty. Name was Sunaki Hotoro. And judging from what ANBU told me the scene is pretty gruesome." Tsunade stood up and grabbed her 'gamble' coat. "Lets go then...we better check it out now." The only others in the room nodded and followed her out of the tower, then they switched and followed Naruto.

* * *

Sakura, Shizune, and Tsunade grabbed their mouths to keep from throwing up. Sasuke grimaced at the scene in front of him. While Ibiki and Naruto were impassive. The doors were open and the bottom half of them were covered in blood, as was the bottom half of the piece of stone blocking the door. There was a small gap under the stone where there was nothing but red, what looks like an elbow and what was once a leg, that was ripped open, showing the crushed bone inside, stuck out from the gap. Overall a very gruesome site... 

The male ANBU Captain in a boar mask standing next to them pointed at the door. "The door had twenty sliding locks on it, attached to a mechanism at the keyhole. The locks are alternating from left to right all the way down, and are held to the door by small slots." Tsunade nodded, having finally fought back the urge to vomit. "Very well, we'll investigate the crime scene a little ourselves, then hand it over to you." The ANBU Captain bowed, and walked out of the small warehouse. Naruto looked around, and finally noticed the gears and pulleys above the makeshift room. "Look up there." The group looked up and saw what he was pointing at. They all look at each other and nod.

They pump Chakra into their feet and jump up onto a conveniently placed walkway. Naruto looked around, and spotted something. "Interesting, looks like the ceiling was spilt into sections." Sasuke looked at him. "What makes you say that?" Naruto sighed, and rubbed his eyes. "There are seven levers up here. Not to also mention I can see the cracks in the floor...er...ceiling." Naruto then spotted timers next to the six smaller levers above the sections. "Interesting...looks like the levers were set on timers. So I guess that makes this lever..." He walked over to the largest lever near the back wall. "The main lever."

Sasuke walked over to it and inspected it. "Yeah, I'd say that is a pretty good guess. This is certainly a new 'game'." Naruto nodded and walked over to the first lever. "Hey, Tsunade-obaachan! You, Sakura, and Shizune go down to the doors and wait, I'm going to try and raise the ceiling." Tsunade sighed at the 'obaachan' part, but nodded and motioned for Sakura and Shizune to follow her down. Naruto cracked his fingers, and pulled the first lever, making the first section rise out of the room. "Well, looks like I was right."

While Naruto pulled the levers, Ibiki and Sasuke wrote down information on the mechanism. When Naruto got to the last lever, he hesitated. "Hey, you girls may want to look away when I raise the last section, the victim might...stick." Tsunade, Sakura, and Shizune flinched, and turned away. Naruto pulled the last lever and the last section raised. The body of the victim stuck to the bottom of the section until it got halfway up, when it peeled off making a sound so sickening that Sakura ran outside and threw up. Tsunade and Shizune managed to not throw up...until they looked at the body. "Oh...oh god!" Both Tsunade and Shizune ran outside and threw up, almost hitting Sakura.

Naruto sighed and jumped down to the lower level, with Ibiki and Sasuke right behind him. What they saw chilled them, though they would never admit it. The chest of the victim was exploded open, the remnants of the ribcage and organs clearly visible. Limbs were bent at odd angles, and completely torn up, showing to the crushed bone. The skull was crushed on the right side, with the remnants of the crushed brain somewhat visible, the right eyeball popped out from its socket. Sasuke visibly flinched, while Ibiki and Naruto are still impassive, if a little shaken on the inside. "Uh, how in the hell can you guys not throw up when you look at this?", Sakura asked, trying not to look at the body.

Sasuke shruged, "My time with Orochimaru probably has something to do with it."

Ibiki shruged as well, "Eh, when you've worked in Torture and Interrogation this kind of stuff doesn't bother you."

Naruto rubbed his neck, "I've seen worse..." The group stared at Naruto, and were only broken out of their thoughts when he screamed at them. "HELLO! A LIGHT PLEASE!" Ibiki reacted first, throwing Naruto a flashlight. Naruto rolled his tired eyes and turned the flashlight on, he then jumped over the body, and walked around the room, pointing the flashlight around, shining light around the dark room. "Pretty bare in here, though, I guess that's to be expected. I see some holes in the walls. Huh, hey what's this?" Naruto walked to the middle of the room and pointed the flashlight at the ground, the beam of light hitting an oddly shaped flat piece of metal. "What the...hmm..." He kneeled down to take a closer look. "Oh, it looks like a key. Damn, poor girl must have dropped it under the ceiling."

He shook his head and stood back up, making his way to the door. "We should go now, and leave ANBU to catalog this mess."

Sakura nodded. "I have no problem with that." Sasuke nodded and looked at Tsunade. Tsunade wanted to stay longer, but she was dead tired, and she had a council meeting at noon. "Alright fine, besides, Shikamaru will be helping us tomorrow, so we can start again first thing tomorrow." The rest of the group nodded, and walked out of the small warehouse, while Tsunade issued orders to the ANBU team waiting outside.

* * *

Shikamaru sighed as he sat at his new desk in the new Investigations department. He really just wanted to go home and rest, but he knew that he could be a great help to the investigation. Behind him was Sakura, and Sasuke sitting at their desks waiting for him to start, Naruto had been ordered to go home and get some sleep by both Shizune and Tsunade, he tried to fight it, but a fist to his head made his choice for him. After his friends were settled settled he stretched his neck and started asking questions. 

"Ok, first I think we should go through each case one by one, lets starts with the first." Sasuke nodded and pulled out a large file, and handed the first 10 pages to Shikamaru. "The first 'game', as we have come to know them, was a simple room, but the ceiling, that had spikes in it, was coming down on the victims." He handed Shikamaru some pictures, showing the room. "The room was a good size, and was filled with quite a number objects, though nothing over three feet tall. They had to find a key to the only door, which had a simpler version of the mechanism in the latest game on it. If they didn't find it the ceiling would keep falling, and when it finally stopped, the spikes would fully deploy, driving straight through to the floor, killing everyone." Shikamaru nodded. "What about the victims?"

Sasuke pulled out a dozen papers and handed them to Shikamaru. "Seven males, ranging from ages thirty to fifty. They all died in the room sadly. One of them managed to get one of the objects unbolted from the floor, to use as a shield, but the spikes went through it." Shikamaru nodded and took the file from Sasuke, and read through the file for a few minutes, before putting it down. "Ok, what about the second case?"

Sasuke pulled out another large file, and handed him the first twenty pages. "This one was...truly sick. There were five victims, all women ranging from ages thirty to fifty-five. They were on a platform in a large underground dome. The room was half filled with oil, and was heated by special sealing scrolls submerged in the oil that were...very advanced. They had fire sealed into them, a lot of fire, and they were set to release certain amounts of it continuously, like a stove-top." Shikamaru nodded while he read the papers in the file. All the people in the room turned to the door when it opened, and bowed slightly when Tsunade walked through.

Sasuke stretched his legs out a bit, and continued on. "In order to get out they had to swim through the burning hot oil to the door, and they had to hurry because the door would lock after a set amount of time, not to also mention the platform they were on was lowering into the oil as well, so they couldn't stay safe on it. None of them made it out, they ended up being boiled alive. By the time we found them, which was thanks to a genin using to many explosive tags, they were boiled and...burnt to a crisp."

Tsunade flinched, along with some of the other ninja that were there that day. Shikamaru took the file from Sasuke and read through it. He was about to ask about the third case when Shizune burst into the room. "TSUNADE-SAMA! ANBU is chasing The Bijuu." All the people in the room gasped. Tsunade smirked and ran out of the room, Shizune hot on her tail, with Sasuke and Sakura following them. "We'll continue this if he isn't caught.", Sasuke said as he left the room. The Investigation team nodded, and went back to setting up the room.

* * *

A purple haired ANBU Captain by the name of Yugao Uzuki and her three man team, plus a few patrolling Jounin and ANBU members, were following after a tall man wearing a black ANBU robe and a Kyuubi mask. "Shit, this guy is fast.", an ANBU in a bird mask stated. Yugao silently agreed. _'He's right, this speed can't be human, he is even able to outrun us.'_

The Bijuu swung around mid jump and threw two daggers at her, one from his right hand, and one from left. She leaned to the right in midair to dodge the first, but flinched when the second cut into her right arm. She managed to swing around and regain her footing, falling in line with her team. "Are you alright?", Bird Mask said. She nodded and tried to speed up.

A loud crash made them look forward to see smoke in front of the now stopped Bijuu. A very pissed off Tsunade walked out from it. "Well Bijuu, this is the end of the line for you."

A rough and scratchy laugh came from The Bijuu. "I don't think so. I doubt you will be able to stop me, not until my tests are finished." Tsunade growled and threw a punch at him, which he dodged by leaning left and jumping away. You could almost see him smirk behind his mask, and you could also almost see it disappear as the tongue of a toad lashed out at him. He spun around and hit the tongue with a dagger, stopping it, then threw another dagger into the smoke where the tongue came from, making the summon toad disappear with a loud pop. He landed on the roof with a thud, and watched as the big form of Jiraiya walked out of the summon smoke. "No, you will be stopped here Bijuu. Your sick 'tests' end today."

The Bijuu let out a dry laugh. "No...even if I die, my tests will not end. Not even you both will be able to kill me." Jiraiya narrowed his eyes. _'That voice...it sounds familiar, where have I heard it before?'_ He didn't have time to think about that, as Bijuu threw four daggers at him, which he jumped over.

The Bijuu used that moment to start running away, along the rooftop, the group of ninja following behind him. He growled when Sasuke appeared in front of him, his Kusanagi sword in hand. Sasuke swung it at Bijuu, hoping to take off his head. The Bijuu spread his right leg in front of him and his left behind him, then bended his body down, sliding under the blade. When he was cleared of the blade Bijuu swung his left leg around and swept Sasuke's feet out from under him, then he swung around to the right and slammed his hand into Sasuke's neck, knocking him out temporarily.

Keeping the sliding momentum going he spun back around and continued going, before being stopped by Sakura's fist...to his face, knocking off his mask, but not throwing his hood back, as well as throwing him back quite a ways. A certain purple haired ANBU took that moment to try to kill him with her katana while he was sliding along the rooftop on his side, but he managed to spin around on his back, his hood _still_ not falling surprisingly, and dodged the blade...or at least mostly dodged it, as he got partially sliced on his left leg, but managed to kick her left leg out from under her. After sliding for a few more feet, he flipped back up and spun around, throwing daggers at her thighs and shoulders, disabling her. He walked over to her, and grabbed her by the hair, lifting her up. "No hard feelings babe, but you are in my way." He threw her at the approaching group of ninja, and quickly picked up his mask, putting it back on.

Tsunade caught Yugao, and set her down on the roof of the building. She looked up at The Bijuu, and glared at him.

The Bijuu flicked his left wrist, making little red glass beads appear in his hand. "My time has been wasted long enough, I must be going now. It has been fun, hope we meet again someday." He jumped backwards into the air, and threw the beads on the roof as the group of ninja advanced, creating a large explosion. When the smoke cleared, The Bijuu was gone. Tsunade slammed her hands on the roof, making it crack

A familiar voice made their head turn. "HEY! WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON! I'M TRYING TO SLEEP!" The form of Naruto Uzumaki...correction...a very pissed off Naruto Uzumaki landed on the roof. Sakura blushed slightly and pounded her fist into his head. "Idiot, put some clothes on!" Naruto looked at her, and looked down, seeing that he was only wearing long boxer pants. "I see no problem." Sakura glared and aimed another punch at him, but is stopped by Sasuke, his neck being held still by his right hand, who stared at Naruto, suspicion in eyes. "Naruto I have a question. Why are you sweaty? Is the air conditioning in your place broken again?"

Naruto blinked, and sighed. "Actually it is, I haven't gotten around to getting someone to fix it." Sasuke eyed him in suspicion, but sighed and walked away, while Sakura walked with him to help fix his neck. Jiraiya walked over to Naruto. "We were chasing The Bijuu, he managed to get away though." Naruto nodded, and popped his neck. "Alright, well I am going back to sleep, later ero-sennin." Jiraiya glared at him as he walked away, never noticing something...off with his former student. "Little bastard, no respect."

And with that, he went over to the group of ninja to gather reports.

* * *

Slow chapter, I know. I might edit it later, since I will probably find something wrong. The next chapter will be better, hopefully. When it will come I don't know...however, more reviews might motivate me to write faster. Now, stats time! 

**Reviews - _4_, Hits - _96_****, c2s - _2_, Favorites - _2_, Alerts - _5_.**

**_Made a minor age edit on 01/28/07.  
Rewritten into paste-tense and partially edited on 07/06/07._  
**


	3. Heat

**I DO NOT OWN NARUTO OR SAW. My grammar is not the best, but the story is readable which is all that matters. If you have a problem with it, then please tell me nicely. Any similarities with other fics is purely unintentional unless otherwise stated. Now, enjoy, because this was a real _pain_ in the ass to write.**

**Very sorry for the wait, I had writers block, not to also mention, writing sick shit like this...well...it takes time. I went to great lengths to make the current tests viable and something that is actually possible, which took quite a while. I would like to thank Starwars4J for helping me make this more realistic, and of course Protoman for supporting this idea. I've also wrote this chapter differently from the first two, it is instead written in past-tense instead of the present-tense. It looks and flows better to ME, but I want opinions on it, and if I should possibly rewrite the first two the same way.  
**

**Also, I will not be saying who it is until the last chapter, or two. But keep on guessing!**

_**SAW**_

_'Heat'  
_

* * *

The sun was almost at the horizon, about an hour away from setting and letting the moon take over the sky. Sasuke, Sakura, Shino, Kiba, Shikamaru, Lee, and Neji sat at a table in a dimly lit corner of a bar. They each had a drink in front of them, except for Lee, as his team had just finished paying for the bar he destroyed celebrating Naruto making Jounin. However, the drinks in front of them were hardly touched, because they were busy 'discussing', and enjoying their rare day off. "...And that is why if you destroy this bar we'll have to kill you.", Neji said to Lee, answering his question of why he couldn't have any sake. Lee sighed and bowed his head in defeat, he knew he wasn't going anywhere. A thought suddenly popped into his head. "Hey, where is Naruto? I thought this was his day off as well." 

Sasuke shrugged, "Dunno, we haven't seen him all day, he wasn't at his apartment either." Sasuke took a slow sip of his drink, going into deep thought, but he didn't say anything further. Kiba looked around, "Come to think of it, we haven't seen Hinata all day either, and the Hyuuga who would talk to us said she had left early this morning but didn't know where she was going." Shino nodded in agreement, and took a sip of his drink.

Before they could comment further, a bored and familiar sounding voice pipped in. "Oi, what are you guys doing in a bar, you aren't old enough to drink." They turned to find Kakashi, Asuma, and Kurenai standing behind Sasuke, who had his back to the door. Sasuke sighed in annoyance, and responded in an equally bored voice. "According to a law written by the Shodai Hokage: _"Any shinobi, Genin or higher in rank has complete access to life's pleasures and the same rights as an adult."_ Does that answer satisfy you Kakashi?" Kakashi looked serious for a moment, before breaking out into a smile, only visible by his 'eye-smile'. "Right answer Sasuke! My next question is how did you find this out? Most Sensei's have an agreement not to tell their teams until they are adults, mostly to piss them off.", Kakashi said as he and the other Sensei's sat down at the last remaining seats at the table.

Sasuke took a sip of his drink, and answered his question. "Naruto told us. He said he read it one of the Hokages files when he was allowed to read from the Hokage's personal library as a child, for his birthday or something." Kakashi, and Kurenai had confused looks on their faces, but Asuma had a look of understanding on his face, and decided to end the confusion. "Yeah, the old man would allow Naruto to read from the personal library of the Hokages on his birthday; mainly as a way to keep him away from the villagers so he was safe, and to at least do something special for him. I was always assigned to 'guard' him on those days..."

Looks of understanding spread around the table, before they fell into an uncomfortable silence. Kiba decided to break the silence, and decided to share a piece of gossip. "Hey, did you guys hear about Iruka? Apparently he has been taking on more missions lately, seems he might be getting a little tired of teaching." Looks of surprise spread around the table, and Kurenai was the first to speak. "Wow, really? Think he is finally ready to take the test to become a Jounin?" Kakashi answered first, a bored look in his eyes as he read his perverted book. "He certainly has the knowledge and skill for it. He just seems to like to avoid fighting if at all possible, but he does know when to fight and when to run away. It's very possible he has had enough of teaching, though I must say, he's stayed longer than any teacher in Konoha's history." Everyone at the table nodded, and took a sip of their drinks.

Sasuke looked at watch and stood to leave. The occupants of the table shot him a confused look, to which he inwardly sighed. "I just remembered I had some...important business to take of. I'll see you all later..." His fellow shinobi nodded and decided to order another round of drinks, as they continued to gossip. Sasuke walked out of bar, and took off onto the roof-tops, his heading; the training grounds.

* * *

A man, no younger then 30, with short brown hair, a blue cloth Konoha forehead protector wrapped around his head, wearing only plain white boxers, and chain less shackles around his wrists and ankles started coughing. He opened his eyes to find himself laying curled up on his side on a 5 foot by 5 foot piece of dark metal. He tried to move, but found that his arm and legs were weighed down. It was then he noted, with shock, that his skin felt like it was on fire. He let out a scream, and closed his eyes. He then summoned up some strength and managed get up and sit on his knees. 

He opened his eyes again, and looked around in shock. He was in a red glowing metal hallway that was about 100 feet long, and about 9 feet wide. Barely visible at the end of the hallway was a rusted metal double door, also glowing red. He also noted that along the wall, every 3 feet, were a row of holes going from ceiling to floor. He suddenly heard a sound to his left and turned to it, to find a TV sitting oddly in the wall. He saw movement on the TV screen, and gasped in shock when a Kyuubi mask appeared on the screen. "Y-y-you! You bastard! What have you done to me!"

The Bijuu laughed. "Me, I have done nothing. Though you should be careful when you follow a 'slut' to a motel room. You never know if it is a trap." He gave a hearty laugh at that. The man scowled and slammed his left hand on the glowing red ground surrounding him. He instantly regretted it, and screamed out, holding his slightly burnt hand to his chest.

The Bijuu stopped laughing as hard, and settled for a few chuckles. "I'd suggest you be careful, the floor, walls, and ceiling are at one-hundred and fifty degrees right now. Enough to seriously burn you. If you look at the edges of the metal plate you are sitting on, you'll see that it is starting to heat up as well." The man did just that, and indeed, the metal plate he was sitting on was starting to heat up.

"What the fuck do you want with me you sick bastard!?", the man screamed. The Bijuu instantly became serious, a dark edge in his voice. "I want to play a game. Jori Yukuta, do you remember what you did to a little boy years ago? You burned his flesh with a Katon jutsu, made him suffer for crimes he did not commit, and he would have died had it not been for a kind old man. Well, now you shall _feel_ his pain. As I have already told you, the floor, walls and ceiling are all very hot. Every minute, the temperature of the metal will go up by fifty degrees. Eventually it will get so hot in the room that you will die of heat stroke...that is, if your body doesn't burst into flames first." Jori winced. "But, there is a way out. Just walk down the hallway, and open the door. Simple as that, but, I have weighed you down with the shackles on your wrists and ankles."

Jori looked down at the shackles and scowled. The Bijuu continued, "However, don't even try to mold Chakra, it will be automatically pulled into the weights, making your trip to the door harder. Yes, that's right, you can't even protect your feet from the floor, nor can you use any jutsu."

"YOU BASTARD! All this punishment just for the worthless demon brat...you're a bigger monster then he is!", Jori screamed with rage. The Bijuu seemed to ignore the comment, and continued on. "Oh, and one more thing, there are about 30 one by one foot triggers hidden randomly in the floor. If you step on one, a VERY flammable gas will be vented into the room from the holes in the walls. So, I'd watch your step...", he chuckled again, "Let the game begin..."

The TV turned off, and then started to melt. Jori looked around, looking for any other way out. After around a minute of looking he felt the room get hotter. He sighed in defeat, and summoned all of his strength to stand up. He staggered, and his breath became labored. He lifted up his left foot, and slammed it down on the red hot floor a little harder than he intended, making him scream in agony as he felt his foot burning. He bravely lifted up his right foot, and tried to lower it gently, but failed, and ended up pressing it into the floor...hard. Tears leaked from his eyes as his feet sizzled and cooked on the hot floor. He took a few more clunky steps, in so much pain that he didn't notice that his feet were bleeding. He looked down the hallway through his tear filled eyes, and saw how many more steps he had to travel.

"Shit..."

* * *

In a dark room, The Bijuu sat watching television monitors getting feeds from cameras inside the hallway. He was wearing his signature Kyuubi mask and black ANBU cloak. He also had on black gloves, and black ninja sandals. The room itself was bare of anything, even windows, only a rusted metal double door stood behind him. He watched with extreme interest as Jori walked step by painful step down the hallway. "Heh, he might actually make it...that would be a first...or would it? I'll have to check later." He looked down at another screen that read the temperature, it currently read 250 degrees. The Bijuu let out a dark chuckle, and propped his head up on his right hand, as he continued to watch the monitors.

* * *

Naruto pulled on his black undershirt, and then put on his usual orange-black jacket. He popped his neck, and looked around the shady motel room he was in. It was pretty bare, double bed, simple nightstands, a cruddy bathroom, and a couple large windows along the back of the room, which currently had the curtains drawn. His eyes fell upon a form under the faded peach colored sheets of the bed, where the very nude form of Hinata Hyuuga lay. He sighed and ran his hand through his hair, as he walked over to her sleeping form._ 'If only I could tell someone about this, it's starting to get really hard to keep this a secret. But in the end, she is right, keeping this a secret is for the best.'_

He leaned down and gave her a light kiss on the lips, before walking out of the room, and into the cool night air. He looked around, noticing it was dark, but he could barely see the moon. "Damn, that was a day off well spent... Guess I'll have to drop by Ichiraku for dinner before going back to my place." He sighed, and took to the trees and rooftops, his destination: Ichiraku Ramen.

* * *

Jori was almost at the end of the hallway, he had been walking for almost 6 minutes now and only had about 15 more feet to go and he was home free. He absently wondered what would await him on the other side of the door, but pushed that aside and put all his effort into making it to the door. His feet were smoking, bloody, and very dry. The air was so hot his lungs hurt, and every step took the life out of him. It took every fiber of his being to not collapse on the floor. He almost jumped for joy as he came within 4 feet of the door. He took his second to last step, and froze in fear as his foot lowered into the ground, having activated a switch in the floor. A sound of hissing hit his ears, and a foul smell filled his nostrils. He quickly took his last step to the door and placed his left hand on the handle. However, the intense heat of the floor was finally too much, and his foot burst into flames, igniting the gas with it. He dully noted that the intense heat of the flames was burning away his skin, hair, and literally cooking his flesh. He collapsed against the door screaming in agony, unable to open it as his body was engulfed by flames. His last moments, were spent being cooked alive. 

In the dark room, The Bijuu laughed as the screams of agony finally faded. "Such a shame. He almost made it. Maybe next time..." He reached out and pressed a button, which turned off the televisions. He stood from his chair and walked to the rusted double door behind him, he opened it, and walked through it into a decaying rotten hallway. He walked through the maze of hallways in an obviously very large house until he came to the front door, which was rotten wood and had a few large chunks missing in it. He opened the door and walked down 5 steps to the ground. The house was in fact a 3-story Manor, that was well past it's prime. It sat in a small 'crater' in the middle of Konoha's thick woods. The Bijuu walked up the sloping ground of the crater and into the woods. Before heading into them, he looked back, and saw the moon, hanging above the trees. He turned back around, and took off into the trees.

* * *

Tsunade was laying face down on her table. She had been in an emergency council meeting since dawn, and boy was she tired, and in need of some Sake. The council meeting had been rather uneventful; most of the day was spent questioning those involved with and who saw the chase to try and pick up as much information as possible. And of course, like every other council meeting, it eventually degraded into a shouting match. She sat up, and spun the chair around to face the large windows behind her desk. She propped her head on her right hand and went deep into thought about the Investigations team._ 'I hope they all enjoyed their day off, because they aren't getting another until this case is solved.'  
_  
She stood from her chair, and walked over to her 'Sake Cabinet'. It was going to be a long night...but she didn't know just how long it would end up being.

* * *

The Bijuu jumped from tree to tree, hoping to get away from his chasers, an ANBU unit. He saw a small clearing just ahead of him and flew into it, landing right in the middle. The ANBU unit followed, and surrounded him on all sides. "It ends now Bijuu.", a lion masked male ANBU said. The Bijuu just chuckled quietly, and prepared to strike. The ANBU unit tensed, and went to attack, but it was too late. He shifted forward slightly, then vanished, and suddenly two of the four man ANBU unit fell, the male in the lion mask, and a female in a horse mask, with The Bijuu's daggers sticking through their throats. 

He reappeared in front of the last male in the group, one with a tiger mask, and used a dagger in his right hand as a kunai. The ANBU blocked it with one of his kunai, and went to draw the sword on his back with his right hand, but before he could fully pull it out of it's sheathe, The Bijuu shifted slightly and snapped his left wrist, a dagger appearing in his left hand, and shifted sideways slightly; using it to slash Tiger masks throat. As the second to last ANBU dropped, he set his sights on the last ANBU, a female with a cat mask. She quickly went for her sword, attempting to draw it with her right hand. The Bijuu acted quickly, and used the falling body of her male team member to propel himself towards her.

She had the sword mostly unsheathed as he crashed into her, sending her into a tree. As he slid back slightly to get some distance, she struck. Swinging her sword in two wide sideways arcs, both of them hitting there target. The Bijuu's mask was sent flying, and a huge gash appeared in his cloak. He recoiled in shock at being hit, before coming back to his senses and striking back. He snapped his wrists and two of his daggers embedded themselves in her thighs, dropping her to her knees. Two more daggers appeared in his hands and he snapped his wrists again, this time they embedded themselves in her shoulders, making her drop her sword, then twist and fall on her back.

He walked over to her, and brought down his foot on her chest. "An aggressive little thing weren't you? Such a shame, I wanted to have a little fun with you first, but I guess I can't." He flicked his right wrist, and another dagger appeared in his hand. "I do congratulate you though, you were able to knock my mask off." He raised his arm slightly, and in the darkness under his hood, she saw two blood red eyes; it would be the last thing she ever saw. The Bijuu snapped his wrist, and the dagger embedded itself in her throat, killing her instantly.

He sighed, so much trouble. He walked over to where his mask was, and picked it up. He looked it over, scowling at the deep cut going diagonally across the mask. After he put it back on, he inspected his cloak, aside from the gash in the cloak, he was unharmed. His black armor stopped him from being hurt, though it too had a battle scar now. He looked up at the moon, hanging high in the sky, and continued back into the forest, never looking back at those he killed.

* * *

Sasuke walked through the broken and decaying Uchiha district to his home. It was almost midnight, and Sasuke was tired. Under his arm, was a piece of black clothing, though it was unidentifiable. He finally reached his home, the old Uchiha manor. He had decided to get over his fear of the place and live there some time ago. He walked through the front door, and down a few hallways until he reached a nondescript door at the edge of the complex. As he opened the door, old memories hit him; he hadn't been in his brothers room since he was a child. 

He walked in and closed the door, taking in the room. It hadn't changed much, most of his brothers old things were still there. He walked over to the closet, and opened it, finding it mostly empty, with only a few of his brothers clothes left. He unfolded the black piece of clothing, revealing it to be an ANBU style cloak, with a large gash in the chest area. He starred at it, before throwing it into the closet, and closing the door. He turned around and walked out of the room, going back the way he came until he got to the main entrance of the house.

He walked around the manor until he got to the master bedroom. He opened the door and found Sakura already asleep, to which he smiled and walked over the empty side of the bed, and collapsed into it, too tired to take his clothes off. He fell asleep within seconds, the moon light pouring into the room...tomorrow was another day.

* * *

**Well, that took a long time didn't it? Well, there ya go. I hope you enjoyed it, it took me a very long time to write it. And a long time to plan it. The real focus of this chapter was to make The Bijuu less of a thing and more of a person. I've also dropped a subtle clue to his identity for you readers, and a clue for the characters later on. I will be dropping clues for you every now and again, hell, I might not even know they are there. Fun ain't it? No idea how long the NEXT chapter will take, I have some planning to do. Until then, Read and Review, as reviews feed my poor bastard soul.**

**Stats:****  
Reviews - _21_, Hits - _764_****, c2s - _3_, Favorites - _6_, Alerts - _16_.**


	4. Investigations Part II

**I DO NOT OWN NARUTO OR SAW. My grammar is not the best, but the story is readable which is all that matters. If you have a problem with it, then please tell me nicely. Any similarities with other fics is purely unintentional unless otherwise stated. Now, enjoy, because this was a real pain in the ass to write.**

**My, almost a year has it been? So very sorry about that, been busy with life and stuff. I've also made a major update to chapters one and two, now with past-tense grammar! Once again I thank Proto for his support and Starwars4J for his help. Now, here is chapter 4 of SAW, enjoy...**

_**SAW**_

_'Investigations Part II'_

* * *

Tsunde sat at her desk in the Investigations department and watched as the 'Investigations' ninja came into the room. Her night had been long, she hadn't gotten any sleep at all, but some shocking news delivered by Jiraiya had dulled the need for sleep. Finally as Sakura, Sasuke, Naruto, Neji, Kakashi, and Shikamaru came into the room and sat down, she decided to share the news. "May I have your attention please, I have some news to deliver, straight from Jiraiya." The room instantly become silent, as they all waited to here what she had to say. "The Akatsuki is back..."

Time seemed to stop in the room, Sakura looked over at Naruto to find him shaking slightly, a fearful look on his face. Sasuke was the first to speak, his voice filled with anger. "What...how is that possible? I thought they were all killed!"

"Not quite...", the deep voice that belonged to Jiraiya said. He walked over to Tsunades desk, and sat down on it, looking over the ninja in the room. "There are still some members alive or presumed to be alive. Among them are the Leader, who's body was never recovered, Itachi Uchiha, who's body was also never recovered, but he is presumed dead because of the wounds he had when he was last seen." He looked over at Sasuke, and saw the look of peace on his face at the mention of Itachi, something he thought was impossible. "Tobi, who ran away when the initial attack began, but also practically vanished off of the face of the Earth. Deidara who I did find recently, but it appears someone wiped his memory of everything involving his life as a ninja, since he was working as a traveling artist." Some of the ninjas blinked at this. Naruto spoke first, his fear dulled. "Not surprising, he jumped to his one great love, art. Probably the only thing that remained in his mind..."

He felt the entire of the room look at him, before Tsunade nodded in agreement and motioned for Jiraiya to continue. Jiraiya nodded and continued on, "And Kisame Hoshigaki, who I also found recently, thankfully his memory wasn't wiped. He has cut all ties with them, as he no longer wheres the cloak or ring, and is working as a mercenary. He was quite helpful and gave me all the information he could, but he didn't know where most of the other members were, just Deidara. All the other members are confirmed dead, or in the case of Hidan, locked away forever." He stood from desk, and walked to the coffee makers in the corner of the room, pouring himself a cup. "However, one of my contacts reported seeing a man fitting the Leaders description in former Sound country, and he was traveling with three cloaked figures, all of them wearing Akatsuki cloaks."

Tsunade stood up, and slammed her hands on her desk. "I've already informed the Council of this development, and will be informing the rest of our ninja tomorrow. However we do NOT need this right now. Our forces are spread thin as it can go trying to catch The Bijuu, and I have no doubt they choose now to 'reveal' themselves now because of this. We need to catch him as quickly as we can so we don't have to deal with a combined threat. We will work as hard as we can to catch this sick monster. Now, any questions?"

Shikamaru raised his hand and asked something many of them had been thinking. "Do you think The Bijuu and this new rise of Akatsuki are in any way related?" Tsunade looked over at Jiraiya, who was currently sitting in a chair next to her desk, sipping his coffee. Jiraiya caught on, and answered the question. "No...these acts are far to personal to be the Akatsuki getting revenge, but we will have an even bigger problem if they try to recruit him. As he is now, he is very dangerous, but if he joins the Akatsuki, absolutely no one would be safe. I have no doubt they would recruit him, but first they would have to find him." Shikamaru nodded, and the tension in the room lowered.

Tsunade sat down, and what she said next, all of those in the room would remember as long as they lived, "We will catch this monster, we will bring him to justice, we will make him pay for his crimes, and we will never give up! EVEN IF IT COSTS US OUR LIVES, WE WILL STOP HIM! DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR!" All of the ninja in the room stood at attention and all said the same thing: "YES, MA'AM!" Tsunade smiled, they had spirit, and the drive to solve the case. "Good, then lets get to work, we will take decent breaks for lunch, dinner, and sleep. And unless you're going on a mission, it's a twenty-four hour job for all of you in this room, let's get started!" The ninja bowed, and sat at their desks, going over case files.

Shikamaru leaned back in his chair, which leaned against his desk. "Oi, Sasuke, lets continue where we left off about the different 'games'." Sasuke nodded and looked around his desk, he searched for a full minute before looking over at Naruto, who was at the desk next to his. "Oi, do you have the file?" Naruto blinked, and looked around his desk, finding the folder in question. He tossed it to Sasuke, who expertly caught it. Sasuke opened the file, and spoke in his bored voice. "The third game was quite interesting, if only because it had a survivor. There were seven victims, all civilians of both sexes ranging from ages thirty to forty-five, and they all had a small bomb inside them made of explosive tags. They were locked in an old decaying house on the edge of the village. According to the written report from the only survivor, a woman, name Mikuzi Jusha, age thirty-five; Bijuu appeared to them on a television, and told them: _'You seven committed an act against a little boy years ago. You lead him into a ninja training field, and attempted to blow him up_-"

Shikamaru cut him off. "Did you do a background check? Was it true?" Sasuke blinked at the sudden interruption, and answered the question. "Yeah we checked, and it was true alright, however we couldn't find a single bit of info on who the boy was, almost like no one was supposed to know. Another strange thing, they only got off with a week in jail." Shikamaru was shocked. "W-what? A week in jail, for trying to blow up a child? Who handled this case?" Tsunade answered that question. "The High Council of Konoha of course...", she then noticed a look on his face, one she was hoping for, "Did...you figure something out Shikamaru?"

Shikamaru leaned back in his chair again, and spoke his thoughts after a minute of silence. "I might have. We know these attacks are far too personal...and hearing all that just made me think something...however I still need more information before I make an assumption. I do think it would be a good idea we should look into the background of all the victims, and see if they had similar records. Perhaps the reasons for the attacks is so simple it was overlooked."

Tsunade nodded, almost sadly, and went to her desk, as she wrote onto a scroll. A minute later she rolled it up and threw it to some of Ibiki's group sitting in the back of the room, "Oi, you guys find and bring anything regarding the victims up here so we can inspect them." Ibiki's group nodded and left the room to go to area where all the information on those who lived in the village was kept. Shikamaru sighed. "Yeah, that could take weeks though, but it's the best lead if the information matches up. Now, please continue Sasuke..." Sasuke blinked, and nodded, continuing on. "Well she stopped writing there, and since she was using a pen she couldn't erase it, though she tried, and we never did get the rest of what he said out her. Anyway, there was a box on the wall in the living room, and around the house were eight hidden keys. Seven of these keys were fakes, and instead of stopping a bomb, would set off the bomb closest to the box."

Shikamaru chuckled darkly. "Clever, so there was no guarantee that any of them would survive." Sasuke nodded, and handed Shikamaru a few pages of the file. He read over them, when he was done, he put them on his desk and motioned for Sasuke to continue. Sasuke flipped through a few files, and continued on. "All of them except Mikuzi died. She got lucky, very lucky, even Bijuu congratulated her on not exploding...though she was emotionally and mentally scared for life afterwards. She's been kept in Rank-S lock-down in the Konoha prison for 'Un-treatable Mental Trauma' ever since."

Shikamaru nodded as he read through the folder, which Sasuke had just handed to him. He suddenly closed the folder, and got a puzzled look on his face, before asking. "Did you, by any chance, keep any of the televisions from the games?" Sasuke blinked at the odd question, but was beat to the answer by Kakashi, who's desk was next to Shikamaru. "Yes, we kept most of them, I'll go grab one, I assume you want to know something about them?" Shikamaru nodded, but said nothing further.

Kakashi left the room and returned a few minutes later with two televisions under his arms. One was covered in dried blood and other matter, the other was relatively unharmed and clean. He set the bloody one on the edge of Shikamaru's desk and the other next to it on the edge of his desk. "All the televisions were made by the Hisake company, who make cheap televisions, both in price and craftsmanship. They couldn't find any orders for large numbers of these same model televisions, which means the Bijuu is smart and buys them one at a time, making it almost impossible to track him from that." Shikamaru nodded, as he looked over the televisions. "Did you ever figure out how he was talking to the victims...or know when they 'awakened'?"

Kakashi shook his head. "No, in the early days we were running around like chickens with our heads cut off, we hardly thought to look for things like that, though some did mull around a few theories, they didn't come up with anything." Shikamaru nodded as he pulled out a kunai, and started to pry off the front of the bloody television. Despite small protests not to destroy evidence he ignored them and finally got it off. He looked under the television screen itself, and smirked at what he saw, a small camera. Everyone around him blinked when they saw they camera, and gawked when they saw a panel that would have been in front of the camera was...invisible in a way. "I can feel Chakra coming off this, and as I recall, this is the same concept for ANBU masks isn't it?"

Kakashi ran his fingers against the invisible piece of panel. "I think this was an ANBU mask once. The stuff these masks are made of, and how they are made, are a well kept secret between the elemental nations. But it wouldn't be too hard to make other things out of them though, if you were very adept with technology. I must say though, it's amazing that Chakra is still flowing out of this, it's been almost three months since the game this television was involved with." Shikamaru nodded as he gently pulled out the camera, and found it was attached to the main cord that would would have plugged into an outlet. He also found a small metal box attached to the camera that he assumed was used to transmit the signal from the camera.

Naruto did the same to the other television, and found exactly the same setup. Shikamaru sat in silence for a few minutes before an idea hit him. He grabbed the fully open bloody television, and motioned for Naruto to grab the other television and follow him. Naruto did so and followed Shikamaru to a part of a wall next to Tsunade's desk. He watched as Shikamaru set his television down and brought over two small folding tables. After he was done setting them up, Shikamaru picked his television up and placed it on the folding table on the left, while Naruto followed his lead except on the right table. Shikamaru leaned down and plugged in his television and Naruto's television. Shikamaru then looked back and asked the room. "Anyone got a remote for these?" Pointing at their obvious lack of front panels, and therefor, easy access to the buttons.

The room blinked, but Kakashi chuckled and pulled out a plastic baggy, which had a remote in it. "We found this at one of the games, it didn't come up with anything though. It's a universal remote for this brand of televisions." He tossed it to Shikamaru, who expertly caught it. He pulled it out of the baggy, and pressed the 'Power' button twice, once for the bloody television, once for the other television. As they turned on, the usual no signal static was all that was seen and heard. Shikamaru narrowed his eyes and looked at the remote, noticing an 'Info' button. He pointed it at the bloody television and pressed it, making the television display the channel number 197.

He smirked, and did the same to the other television, making it display the channel number 203. The room blinked, but Shikamaru smirked wider. "So, it seems Bijuu isn't as smart as he seems. From this, it looks like his talks to his victims through unused public television channels." The room became tense, instantly understanding. Jiraiya spoke first, his voice tense. "T-that means ANYONE could tune in and watch him talking to the victims. To think he would take such a risk." The room nodded in agreement. Shikamaru let out a slight laugh, causing the room to stare at him in confusion. His slight laugh became full blown laughter and finally died down after a few minutes.

"So...this is how much he cares about his games. He'll gladly let the whole world know what he is doing, without any thought to the danger of being caught. It's almost like he _wants_ to be caught." The room stood still and silent. Sasuke broke the silence, his voice calm and certain. "Well then, I say we oblige him. If he wants to be caught, then we'll do just that." He gave a cocky smirk, and Naruto matched him. Shikamaru smiled, while the rest of the room nodded in agreement.

A thought suddenly hit Shikamaru. "Oi, how many unused public channels are there anyway?" Before the room could even move, Naruto answered the question. "One hundred and eighty-five, give or take. Some people 'hack' into the channels every now and again." He felt the room look at him once again, and Sasuke asked him a question, suspicion barely visible in his voice. "How do you know that?" Naruto glanced at Sasuke almost shockingly for a split second before putting his hand behind his head and chuckling. "This dude who used to live in my apartment building aired a propaganda show one these unused channels. He would watch over me every now and again, and while he did that I learned all about these channels, including how to broadcast on them legally and illegally."

Shikamaru snapped his head up, and asked Naruto a question. "You know how to broadcast on these channels?" Naruto nodded. "Mind telling us?", he finished. Naruto went over to his desk and grabbed a pad of paper, before walking back to the televisions. "The legal way is to get a permit to use a channel, which involves going through the Council, and describing your programing, etcetera. The illegal way however is to buy some broadcasting equipment, usually through 'bad' sources, and broadcast onto the unused channels. It's very simple, but the hard part is not being tracked. They keep a list of where all the broadcasting places are so that signals from there will be ignored, and if your place of residence isn't on the list of those allowed to broadcast, they come to get you.

"My former neighbor found a way around that though, he also had a legit radio station, that played old music. And 'our' trackers for finding broadcast signals pick up radio AND television, so they can't be tracked accurately. However, he finally slipped up once and they jumped on him. I never found out what happened to him, though I assume they killed him, since the old man wouldn't answer me about it." He handed Shikamaru the pad of paper with a list of everything needed on it.

Shikamaru nodded, and stood up from his crouching position. He looked back at the ninjas behind him, and spoke. "We should monitor as many of these channels as we can, even if that means flipping through them one by one. Get any more televisions you can find, NOW!" The ninja in the room looked around oddly for a moment, until Tsunade yelled an order at them. "YOU HEARD HIM, GO AND GET AS MANY TELEVISIONS AS POSSIBLE!" Half the ninjas in the room ran out the door at her outburst.

At that moment, an ANBU poofed into the room, a report in his hand. "Hokage-sama, we have just found an ANBU unit dead in the forest, we suspect The Bijuu did it, as they had been killed by the daggers he uses." Tsunade snatched the report from his hand and read it over. "Take us there, now." The ANBU nodded and walked out of the room. She turned to Neji, and gave him an order. "Neji, you stay here and tell the others where we went if they come back before us..." She turned to Shikamaru. "Well Shikamaru, lets see his handy work first hand shall we?"

Shikamaru nodded and he, Tsunade, Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, Jiraiya and Kakashi left the room...

* * *

The group looked at the dead bodies of the fallen ANBU unit impassively, it certainly wasn't the worst thing they had ever seen. While the rest of group went up close to the bodies, Shikamaru stood in the middle of clearing and looked around at the bodies, and the trees around them. The group became alarmed when he jumped up to a tree. They looked at him and all but Tsunade followed, while she motioned for one of the two ANBU units at the scene to follow her.

"What are you doing Shikamaru?", Tsunade asked. Shikamaru narrowed his eyes as he strained to look ahead of him. "Looking for a trail, I can see a footstep here, I'm trying to find more." He finally spotted what he was looking for, multiple footprints in the trees. He made a hand motion signaling them to follow and took off following the trail with the others right on his tail.

Minutes later he finally stopped, staring at the trees ahead of him. He could clearly see the ANBU's trail to his front-right, but their killer's trail was harder to spot. Sasuke finally saved the day, after spotting a branch broken by a footstep to Shikamaru's front-left. They took off onto that path, and flew through the trees at a moderate pace, making sure not to lose the trail. "Although I think this idea is alright, what's the point?", Sasuke asked. Shikamaru decided to share his concerns, "I think there might have been another game, as he seems to be doing them more frequently. Not to also mention, these forests are the perfect place for Bijuu to set up, it's in the middle of nowhere and is rarely gone through completely. We might just get lucky..."

Sasuke nodded in confirmation, and out of the corner of his left eye, spotted something on the ground. "STOP!" At this everyone stopped, and followed after Sasuke as he went back to what he saw. He jumped to the ground, and the others followed. They all stared numbly at the metal double doors laying in a frame on the ground. "So, who wants to go in first?", Sasuke asked in a somewhat cocky voice. Shikamaru raised his hand, and opened the doors. He descended into the dark abyss, with the others right behind him. Sasuke pulled a flashlight out of his pocket and turned it on, revealing the hallway they were in. It honestly could have easily passed for a mine, as the walls and ceiling were being held up by pieces of wood.

The light also hit a rusted metal double door, signifying the end of the hallway. Shikamaru walked up to it, and a foul stench hit his nostrils, making him recoil. He covered his nose with his shirt, and went to open the doors, but found the right door wouldn't open. The left door did, and when it did, he almost wished it would have stayed closed. He fell back in shock at what was in front of him: a human body, burnt to a crisp. The others flinched as well, even the rough ANBU twitched a little. Kakashi walked forward, snatching the flashlight from Sasuke's hand and pointing the beam of light into the room, whistling at the length of the hallway. "This has must have taken a long time to create, how is he doing this by himself..."

Tsunade nodded in agreement and turned to the ANBU unit. "You guys get reinforcements, NOW!" The ANBU nodded, and poofed away to get help. The remaining ninja leaned against the walls of the hallway and waited for reinforcements.

* * *

Tsunade cringed as she helped pry the latest victim from the door. Apparently some type of gas had burned his body, some of which got him so hot he melted into and onto the door a little. When the body was finally unstuck and taken out of the room, Shikamaru gave a report of what he had found. "The victim walked down the hallway to this point, I'm guessing from the fact that the hallway is metal that he had to walk on a hot surface. It also appears there are quite a number of 'triggers' in the floor, as a number of us have tripped them accidentally. I'm guessing what they trigger is a gas of some sort, that is piped into the room via those holes in the walls." Tsunade nodded, and asked him a question. "What is this metal anyway? It doesn't look like your average metal."

Shikamaru scratched his head and shrugged. "We don't know for sure yet. It appears to be some kind of alloy including Copper, possibly Bronze or Brass. They're taking a section to analyze, then they're gonna pick this place apart to see the full story." Tsunade nodded, and turned to walk down and out the hallway, with Sasuke, Sakura, Shikamaru, Naruto and Kakashi following her, Jiraiya staying behind to help catalog the game. "Alright, let the ANBU catalog the rest of this, lets get back to Investigations room, see if they got the televisions set up yet." When they walked out into the fresh air of the woods, Shikamaru spoke. "Lets take the scenic route back, see if we can get lucky again and find something."

The rest of the group nodded, and they all took to the trees, back to the Investigations room.

* * *

As the group, minus Jiraiya, walked into the Investigations room, their eyes became fixated at the 15 televisions that had been set-up around the 'evidence televisions', all of them being channel surfed by a small group of ninjas. The group walked further into the room and sat at their desks, as Tsunade walked over the televisions. "Anything promising?" The group looked over, and shook their heads, while Neji answered her question further. "Nothing yet, we did see a few 'channel hacks' first hand though, quite a few interesting shows that get broadcast on these channels, almost makes me wish I had a television."

Tsunade nodded and went back her desk, noticing the stacks of paperwork on it and sighed. _'Guess working with the Investigation can't get me a pardon from paperwork.'_ And so she went to work on her paperwork, while also listening to what was going on around her.

Shikamaru picked up a piece of paper he had been writing on, and folded it, putting it under a stack of other papers. He leaned back in his chair, and sighed. _'I really wish I could look at the clouds right now...instead I have to be stuck in here all day. Oh well, at least I have an excuse to not visit mom.'_ As he leaned back and daydreamed, while the rest of the room toiled away going through random files, the sound of the channel surfing coming to a stop filled his ears.

Shikamaru opened his eyes and looked back at the televisions, all of them on the same channel, darkness filling the screen. Tsunade stood up and walked over the televisions, followed by Shikamaru, Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, and Kakashi. They watched the screen for about 30 seconds before fear gripped them when a figure turned around, revealing the Bijuu, except he wasn't wearing a Kyuubi mask, it was different and had a sandy color to it. Naruto instantly recognized who it was, "S-s-Shukaku!"

Sasuke nodded in agreement, having seen Shukaku before. The room well silent as Bijuu spoke. "Me? I am The Bijuu, and this...this is your hell. Mushika Yoshi, and Hetora Jishi, do you remember what you did to a little boy years ago? Of course you do...you committed acts so unspeakable, that you should have been hanged, but instead you got a week in prison... Well...I want to play a game.

"You are both facing each other for a reason, I want you to witness each others suffering. Mushika, you are the main player in the game. You are both bound to the wall by your wrists and ankles, but only you can move Mushika, however, when you move a limb, a saw behind your dear lover will come forth, taking off a limb...or possibly a head." He chuckled, and the room became tense with fear. "Each of you limbs, is attached to a saw on the other side of the room, but they are hooked up randomly. If you wish to be freed, then you will have to sacrifice a piece of your lover, to reach the five levers in front of you. One of them releases you both, the other four brings out a random saw behind YOU Mushika.

"Oh? You don't want to do this, well...you should have thought of that before you did what you did... If you want out of this, just say so, and I will release you, but in return, I will kill your lover... No? Very well... Let the game begin." They watched as Bijuu shifted forward, and in shock, spoke to them. "And to the Investigators watching this, welcome to the show, I will let you enjoy this as much as I do." His feed shut of, and a new feed started, what looked like a boiler room, a man and a woman were strapped to a wall across from each other. They stared in shock as she cried her heart out, while the man told her to let him go and save herself.

Tsunade screamed out an order, which was heard all the way outside. "HURRY UP PEOPLE! IF WE CAN FIND WHERE THEY ARE MAYBE WE CAN SAVE THEM!" The tension in the room cleared slightly as it buzzed with activity. Shikamaru, Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, Kakashi, and Tsunade stayed put and watched the game in progress, hoping they could save them in time...unaware they were being watched by the evidence still in the room...

* * *

**Slow chapter, yes, there is a point to all this drabble, it's just...hidden. I might edit this chapter later, to take out crap I don't like. Also, the Akatsuki will play no major role, but maybe a cameo or two. Well, I hope you enjoyed that, and know that I will finish fic come hell or high water, might even put a new chapter out sooner then you think! Oh, suspenseful isn't it? Well come back next time for Chapter 5: _Brutality_ and remember to review, or maybe Bijuu will come after YOU next...  
**

**Stats:****  
Reviews - _39_, Hits - _1646_****, c2s - _4_, Favorites - _14_, Alerts - _22_.**


End file.
